1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a storage box for wafer cassettes, and more particularly, pertains to a standard mechanical interface (SMIF) storage box, including a box, box door, and locking clips for encompassing a wafer cassette.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The SMIF box, SMIF standing for Standard Mechanical Interface equipment, is an industry-wide uniform interface for transferring a wafer cassette carrying a plurality of silicon wafers between boxes or into and out of processing equipment. The SMIF box provides a clean room environment for the wafers inside the boxes, as well as equipment canopies isolated from an operator's environment. The group which designated the standard specifications for SMIF designed an entirely new system, as well as dictating specifications requiring a new design for the SMIF box, box door, and locking mechanism.
The prior art boxes have not been acceptable to robotic processing equipment, and also have not provided the necessary wafer environment inside the storage boxes. Prior art storage boxes have not been compatible nor oriented for robotic processing equipment, especially state of the art robotic processing equipment for handling of wafer cassettes, including cross-bar wafer cassettes in storage boxes, such as that designed under the SMIF concept.
The present inventions overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a storage box designated for use in standard mechanical interface (SMIF) equipment for processing of wafers held in a wafer cassette, the wafer cassette being housed in the SMIF storage box.